박근형의 『햄릿』: 셰익스피어 공연에 있어서 현재의 문제

Abstract

Seoul Metropolitan Theater’s Hamlet of 2011, directed by Park Geun-hyeong, that triggered public memory of the suicide of ex-president Roh Moo-hyeon. Park seemed to achieve his goal ‘Hamlet for ordinary people’ when he took on the tragedy. Yet, his success was based on the sacrifice of Shakespearean poetry and the complex psychology of the characters. With a clear purpose, Park did not dare to show on stage anything that a Korean audience might not understand or find to be boring. With a familiar pattern taken from Korean melodramas and an incorporation of political implications, the audience would feel that the production was not only the easiest to grasp, but also the most emotionally involving Hamlet. It was also possible that the audience could have become more interested in Korean politics by attending these performances. However, the performance overall seemed to repeat Park’s ilsanggeuk in this production in terms of scenography and characterization. His task to represent a classical tragic hero with a contemporary hint resulted in presenting a sentimental and powerless Hamlet that failed to represent the anxiety and the distress from which contemporary Korean people are suffering. Those sufferings seemed to have derived from cruelty of a Western-imported neoliberalism and collapse of the old family relationships. Indeed, Park’s ilsanggeuk is more capable of presenting the tragic situation of Korean rather than his rendition of Hamlet.